This paper sets out a synthesis of five reports commissioned by District Health Boards New Zealand and the Ministry of Health as part of their ‘change in primary health care’ project within the Joint Work Programme on Primary Health Care Strategy (PHCS) Implementation. The synthesis focuses on the next stage of development for primary health organisations (PHOs) in New Zealand, what needs to change, and how the effectiveness of PHOs might be assessed.
The report takes as its starting point evidence that implementation of the PHCS has been more successful in relation to reducing the cost of access to care and increasing utilisation of primary health care services, whilst struggling to bring about desired changes in terms of extending primary health care service provision at the practice level and enabling better integration of a diverse range of primary and community health services accessed by consumers.